The New England Patriots now know their opponent for this weekend’s Divisional Round. It will be the Houston Texans, who crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6 Monday night in the final game of the Wild Card Round.
We also now know the time of the game: 3 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the call.
The Patriots, of course, punched their ticket to the Divisional Round with Sunday night’s 16-3 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Like the Patriots, the Texans rode their defense to victory, as they held Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers to 175 yards of total offense and no touchdowns. The game was a 7-6 slog entering the fourth quarter, but Houston’s defense helped blow it open with a strip sack return for a touchdown and an interception return for a touchdown.
For Houston, this was nothing new. The Texans had one of the best defenses in the NFL all season, ranking first in yards allowed (277 per game), second in points allowed (17.4 per game) and third in takeaways (29).
Drake Maye and the Patriots offense struggled Sunday against another good defense in the Chargers, and will certainly need to clean some things up if they’re going to have success against a tough unit like Houston’s.
The Texans do not have an elite offense, though, ranking in the middle of the pack in yards and points. They limited turnovers in the regular season, committing the second-fewest, but quarterback C.J. Stroud did have three Monday night, throwing an interception and losing two fumbles.
The Texans, who finished the regular season with a 12-5 record, will come into Foxborough having now won 10 straight games.
This will be third playoff meeting all-time between the Patriots and Texans. New England won each of the previous two, 41-28 in the Divisional Round in 2012 and 34-16 in the Divisional Round in 2016.
The winner of Sunday's game will go to the AFC Championship Game and face the winner of Saturday's Denver Broncos vs. Buffalo Bills game.
Here is the full schedule for the NFL Divisional Round:
Saturday
4:30 p.m. ET – Buffalo Bills at Denver Broncos (CBS)
8 p.m. ET – San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks (FOX)
Sunday
3 p.m. ET – Houston Texans at New England Patriots (ESPN/ABC)
6:30 p.m. ET – Los Angeles Rams at Chicago Bears (NBC)